was a klepalo for calling the people to church.  The people there are too poor to afford a bell, and so in place of that they use a beam of oak hung from a rope tied about the center, and this beam is struck with a hammer, first on one side, and then the other.  Sometimes an iron klepalo is used as well, and then they strike first the beam and then the iron bar, so as to vary the monotony of the call.  I found that the wooden klepalo could be heard for a distance of about one and a half miles over land, and the iron one for over two miles.  Now we can easily make a wooden klepalo for use in this camp, and then if Dutchy, or any of the rest of us, keep within a mile and a half of camp there won’t be any trouble with the cook.”

So we built a klepalo, getting from Lumberville a stick of seasoned oak, 1-1/2 inches thick, 6 inches wide and 4 feet long.  A hole was drilled into the stick at the center, and by a rope passed through this hole the beam was suspended from a branch overhanging the camp.  Jack, the cook, regularly used this crude device to call the hungry horde to meals.

[Illustration:  The Klepalo.]

CHAPTER VII.

SURVEYING.

One of the first things we did after getting fairly settled in our new quarters was to make a complete survey of Willow Clump Island and its immediate surroundings.  Our surveying instruments were made as follows: 

The Surveying Instrument.

[Illustration:  Fig. 71.  Baseboard of the Surveying Instrument.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 72.  Sighting Blocks on the Baseboard.]

Out of a 1-inch board we cut a base 15 inches long and 4 inches wide.  In the center we sawed out a circular opening of about 3 inches diameter and covered this at the bottom by a circular piece 1 inch thick and 5 inches in diameter, thus forming a socket in which our compass fitted snugly.  A hole 1 inch in diameter was drilled through the center of this circular piece to receive the pivot pin of a tripod.  Across each end of the baseboard we secured a block 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick.  A 1-inch sight hole was drilled through each block at its center.  A ring of cardboard, on which Uncle Ed marked with radial lines the 360 degrees of the circle, was placed over the compass socket, with the zero and 180 degree marks pointing toward the sight blocks.  The outer faces of the end blocks were now wet with mucilage and a hair was stretched vertically across the center of each sight hole.  The hairs were then adjusted by sighting through the holes and moving the nearer hair sidewise until it was exactly in line with both the zero and the 180 degree marks on the cardboard.  Then a hair was stretched horizontally across the center of each sight hole.  Great care was taken to place the hairs at exactly the same height above the baseboard.  To protect the hairs after they were adjusted, they were covered with a piece of glass, which was secured in place by tacks driven into the wood with their heads projecting over the edges of the glass.